Cops grill Abhishek Banerjee for 5 hours in Camac Street case; he calls it political vendetta
Abhishek Banerjee was summoned in connection with a clash between his supporters with officials who went to his Camac Street office to remove an unauthorised billboard
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee faced a grueling five-hour interrogation at the Shakespeare Sarani police station in Kolkata on Tuesday. The questioning came after an altercation between Banerjee's supporters and government officials who arrived at his Camac Street office to remove an unauthorized billboard on August 27.
Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of orchestrating a political vendetta against him, stating, "This is political vendetta. The CM is threatening everybody in a tone that indicates that he will have the last word in democracy. Why are they (BJP) so afraid of the TMC? Why are they keen on taking over our offices."
Banerjee was brought to the police station around 12:20pm and remained there until about 5:45pm. He accused the BJP of attempting to manipulate electoral outcomes, alleging that checks on EVMs in some assembly seats would reveal electoral malpractices that led to the BJP's victory in the April state elections. The police have arrested 13 individuals in connection with the Camac Street incident, accusing Banerjee and others of attacking police and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) personnel.
Banerjee dismissed these charges, stating, "Nobody was molested. On the contrary, videos show police dragging our workers down the staircase. Tariq, one of our arrested workers, was tortured in custody. Three more were arrested without notices being served to them as per law. There are many procedural lapses."
Banerjee expressed frustration with the lack of proper functioning fire safety systems in his office building, stating that alarms and sprinklers were not operational. He suggested that had the administration prioritized fire audits earlier, the loss of life at the Tarapith and Kolkata hotels and the destruction of files at the Alipore administrative building could have been prevented. The Kolkata police has not yet commented on Banerjee's allegations.
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